IDG Contributor Network: Security industry is a meritocracy, so don't anchor on gender

There is no surprise that the information security tech world has tended to be predominately men, but we are seeing more and more women break into the cyber security field. STEM education didn't exist when I was in school with the dinosaurs, back in the day when we had chalkboards and typewriters and we did all our homework using pen and paper. Actually, the pen was even advanced at that time. Pencil was safe because you could erase.

Computer science majors were about the only people who were using the internet in its nascent stages, and most of these people were men. But as the rapid proliferation of technology became more common place, people's ideas about the world around them also progressed.